Using DiskAid to extract iPhone Data
Even though iTunes and iCloud backup are perfectly suitable backup solutions for most people, I have often found it necessary to perform a restore of the iOS firmware while not wanting to restore from backup.
The reason behind that is because I have often found that restoring a backup causes random spikes in battery usage and app errors. However, there have been cases where I require my text messages or other data from my iOS device and I have been looking for a solution to backup only specific parts of it.
The easiest and fastest application that I could find to perform those tasks reliably is DigiDNA’s Diskaid.
Additionally, it provides you with a series of very useful information which iTunes tends to make difficult to gather. DiskAid will allow you to copy data from and to your iOS device i.e. Messages, Contacts, Call History, Notes etc. and you can then fine grain your restore process or even archive your thousands of text messages to your computer to reduce clutter on your iOS device.
Mac Meetup #3
We’re looking forward to seeing everyone tomorrow (21st May) at the Mac Meetup. We’ll be in the upstairs function room from 6pm in The Crown and Two Chairmen:
The address is:
31-32 Dean St London W1D 3SB
If you haven’t been before and you are wondering what the evening is… Simply, it’s a chance for Mac and IT professionals to get together and have a chat, away from the computer, over a couple of beers or two.
It’s a great opportunity to meet like-minded professionals and a few our Amsys team members will also be around if you have a couple of ideas you want to bounce off of us!
We make the promise that there will be no sales, pitches or presentations and the evening is a relaxed, informal affair!
If you are on Linkedin, please join our Mac Meetup Linkedin group to stay up to date about future events, or you can register via the Mac Meetup page on the website.
See you then!
How to Disable Dashboard in OS X
Here’s yet another tip in my ‘how to disable Series!’
Now Dashboard can be useful, but I understand that there is the need to disable this perhaps within a managed working environment.
Luckily, the good old command line has an answer to this!
So, all you have to do to completely disable the Dashboard in OS X, is open the Terminal Application from /Applications/Utilities and enter the following command:
defaults write com.apple.dashboard mcx-disabled -boolean true && killall Dock |
Bingo! The older keyboard’s F4 Dashboard key, the Dashboard Application or the 4-finger swipe on a Multi-touch or Magic Trackpad no longer function and Dashboard cannot be opened!
If you do want to revert back to the default setting and enable Dashboard again, just enter the following command:
defaults write com.apple.dashboard mcx-disabled -boolean false && killall Dock |
Disclaimer:
While the author has taken care to provide our readers with accurate information, please use your discretion before acting upon information based on the blog post. Amsys will not compensate you in any way whatsoever if you ever happen to suffer a loss/inconvenience/damage because of/while making use of information in this blog.
This feature has been tested using OS X v10.8.3 which was the latest Mac OS release at the time of writing and also using the latest Internal and external Apple keyboards.
Additional features to Screen Sharing in OS X
Even though it has been a feature of OS X for several years now Screen Sharing doesn’t get the recognition I feel it deserves especially considering this is an inbuilt feature. In 10.7 Apple added some nice new features which make it even better but during training courses I still find delegates that did not know about them.
They have now added the ability to use, per user Screen Sharing. This means that if your machine has multiple user accounts and is currently being used by someone else, you can simply log in with your account credentials when selecting screen sharing and this will give you the option to either take control of the current User session, or log in to your own users session.
Another new feature, is that they have incorporated a toolbar into the screen sharing application. Below are the options you can add or remove from your toolbar.
The Control Mode is a feature I’m glad that has been included in the new toolbar. The only issue I have is that by default you take control straight away and if you are connecting to a machine that someone is still working on with maybe only the one account, it can freak the user out when the mouse starts moving before you have made them aware.
It is possible to adjust this through the Screen Sharing Preferences. Either start up a screen sharing session or go to, /System/Library/CoreServices and load up the application from there. Load the Application Preferences to adjust the Setting in which, once connected, you always take control to initially observe.
Screen sharing is relatively under used and for most is very much overshadowed by Apple Remote Desktop, but in a company environment where you have just started to integrate Macs then this built in feature will go a long way in easily supporting your users without additional costs.
Win a free training course of your choice, with Amsys!
We’ve been celebrating the countdown to the 50 billionth download on the App Store, which was reached on Wednesday.
So, we have decided to offer one lucky person a free training course of their choice… all you have to do is fill in the form below and choose whichever course you would most like to sit. Whether it’s an OS X certified course such as Server Essentials, or an app development course like Objective C for Beginners or Android Development, it really doesn’t matter, the choice is yours!
The winner will be picked at random and notified via email on Monday 20th May at 12pm. We will then send the winner a selection of dates when the course can be taken at either one of our three training centres.
Good luck!
Competition now closed
How to disable the notification centre, permanently!
We have covered the notification centre in a few blogs in the past, including how to temporarily disable, expand and toggle “do not disturb” on the notification centre. Recently, however, a student attending our Advanced deployment course asked me how to disable it completely and permanently.
As usual, with the mac systems, we will be using the launchctl command to unload it but we’re going to use -w to override the disabled key and set it to false:
launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.notificationcenterui.plist |
It worked for me without it, but you may have to run:
killall NotificationCenter |
You can always revert the settings by changing unload to load!
For me it’s not so much about the menu bar space, it’s the constant update notifications from the App Store that drive me nuts.
How to disable the Finder’s ‘Go to Folder’ option.
Here’s another nice little tip in my ‘How to Disable Series’!
The OS X Finder’s ‘Go to Folder’ menubar option allows a user to enter the path to any folder in the file system, whether it is visible or not. This can be a dangerous thing if users know what they are looking for!
If you decide that you don’t want users to be able to access the OS X Finder’s ‘Go to Folder’ menubar option as shown below, this can be disabled.
To remove the ‘Go to Folder’ option, all you need to do is enter one line of command in the Terminal application (from /Applications/Utilities/) as shown below :
defaults write com.apple.finder ProhibitGoToFolder -bool true && killall Finder |
Notice the ‘Go to Folder’ option is now missing and also the hot keys of ‘SHIFT’ + ‘COMMAND’ + ‘G’ do not work either:
If you do want to revert back to the default setting, just enter the following command:
defaults write com.apple.finder ProhibitGoToFolder -bool false && killall Finder |
Disclaimer:
While the author has taken care to provide our readers with accurate information, please use your discretion before acting upon information based on the blog post. Amsys will not compensate you in any way whatsoever if you ever happen to suffer a loss/inconvenience/damage because of/while making use of information in this blog.
This feature has been tested using OS X v10.8.3 which was the latest Mac OS release at the time of writing and also using the latest Internal and external Apple keyboards.
Eating our own dog food!
As you have probably seen from previous posts, I’m a big fan of mobile devices, especially iOS.
Here at Amsys everyone has an iPhone or equivalent, so we are always looking for innovative ways of using them in our business.
One great example is with our training department.
Our trainers are always busy, so we needed a very quick and easy way for them to be able to check their schedule. We wanted them to be able to see which courses they are scheduled to teach, along with, who is attending that particular course.
So, we have written a simple app that allows them to do just this.
The app connects to a feed produced by our backend systems, in this case FileMaker. From the App the trainer can search for their courses, filter the courses by location or date as well as seeing who is attending the course.
Following on from this version, another task the trainer has to perform is to log which pieces of kit they are using for a particular course. For this we used QR codes as asset tags for the equipment. Each QR code holds the devices serial number, asset number and a description.
We then added QR code scanning capability to the app which allows the trainer to very easily compile a kit list which then gets emailed back to our training administrators.
These sort of internal business apps are reasonably straight forward to create and cost effective.
If you have some ideas for your company and fancy creating an app yourself, then we run a number of courses to help achieve this goal including:
• 2 Day Objective-C course for beginners
• 5 Day Developing apps for iOS 6
Alternatively we have a team of developers waiting to turn your ideas into real apps.
If you need any information please feel free to contact our team on 020 8660 9999 or training@amsys.co.uk
Last chance to take 10.7 exams
The final date for Lion 10.7 exams has just been confirmed as the 14th June 2013, these exams include:
- Mac Integration Basics (9L0-407),
- ACTC 10.7 Re-certification (9L0-517)
- OS X Support Essentials 10.7 (9L0-410)
- OS X Server Essentials 10.7 (9L0-515)
If you are still yet to take the examination required to get your certification, we strongly encourage that you book asap. Please also bare in mind that if you fail the exam you will then have to wait 7 days before being able to retake.
All of the available dates when exams can be taken at our training centres in Central London, South London and Manchester can be found below.
South London Exam Dates
- 9th May – between 10am-3pm
- 10th May – between 10am-3pm
- 13th May – between 10am-3pm
- 14th May – between 10am-3pm
- 17th May at 3pm
- 20th May – between 10am-3pm
- 21st May – between 10am-3pm
- 24th May – 3pm
- 28th May – between 10am-3pm
- 30th May – between 10am-3pm
- 31st May – between 10am-3pm
- 4th June – between 10am-3pm
Central London Exam Dates
- 8th May – between 10am-3pm
- 16th May at 3pm
- 17th May at 3pm
- 24th May at 3pm
- 31st May at 3pm
Manchester Exam Dates
- 28th May – between 10am-3pm
- 29th May – between 10am-3pm
- 3rd June – between 10am-3pm
For more information or to enquire about exam dates, please fill in the form below:
How Margaret got her app live & how you can do it too!
Hearing about our students stories, accomplishments and the projects that they have delivered since attending our courses is a very rewarding time and provides us with inspiration and pride in the work that we do here at Amsys training.
Last year Margaret, a graphic designer from Essex, took the Amsys Objective C for beginners and iPhone SDK workshop course. Following her training, Margaret left feeling that the course had met her objectives and had given her a good understanding of the Objective C language, therefore enabling her to pursue her own app development project.
The App is called “Unibookworm” and seeks to solve the problem with “what to do with your uni books, once your degree has finished.” Many other providers, such as Amazon, take a percentage from each sale, which is something that Margaret wanted to avoid.
After a year in the making, the App was accepted onto the AppStore this weekend and is now available to download now for 69p.
Once UniBookWorm is downloaded, students can enter the book’s details, by using the quick ISBN feature which recognises the number and fills in the details for them (they can add a photo using the camera function).
Students looking for particular books can also search the Unibookworm database by author, subject, ISBN or keyword. The students can then send messages to each other to arrange payment, delivery etc.
Included within the app is a link (by clicking on the Purchase button) for the Barclays Pingit App, which can be downloaded and used for easy payment. You don’t have to have a Barclays account in order to use this facility.
Richard Mallion, author of our iOS app development courses, has downloaded the app and said that, Margaret had “done a fantastic job.”
For more information about our app development courses, click here, or call us on 0208 645 5806 .
How to disable Mission Control and Spaces in OS X
Following on from my previous blog ‘Prevent OS X help windows from hogging your screen’, here’s another defaults write configuring tip, this time it’s all about disabling Mission Control.
When disabling Mission Control, it also disables the Spaces feature – providing that you close all of your spaces prior to disabling Mission Control.
To disable Mission Control in OS X, open the Terminal Application from /Applications/Utilities and enter the following command:
defaults write com.apple.dock mcx-expose-disabled -bool TRUE && killall Dock |
There you go! The F3 key, the Mission Control Application or the 4-finger up gesture on a Multi-touch or Magic Trackpad no longer function and Mission Control cannot be opened!
If you do want to revert back to the default setting and enable Mission Control again, just enter the following command:
defaults delete com.apple.dock mcx-expose-disabled && killall Dock |
Disclaimer:
While the author has taken care to provide our readers with accurate information, please use your discretion before acting upon information based on the blog post. Amsys will not compensate you in any way whatsoever if you ever happen to suffer a loss/inconvenience/damage because of/while making use of information in this blog.
This feature has been tested using OS X v10.8.3 which was the latest Mac OS release at the time of writing and also using the latest Internal and external Apple keyboards.
NameChanger, a powerful, free, file renaming utility
NameChanger is powerful utility for batch processing the renaming of multiple files.
NameChanger has many options including append/prepend text, sequential numbering, and date/time stamp for renaming files.
A domestic scenario where this utility maybe useful (techies may also find this utility useful) would be a batch pictures copied off a digital camera whereby the files are generally named in a sequential format like DCS_001.jpg or IMG001.jpg. Let’s just say you would like to keep the sequential numbering but prefix the filename with the text “Holiday 2013” so that it read “HOLIDAY 2013_001.jpg”.
So first we drag and drop a batch of files that we would like to rename on top of the NameChanger applications windows.
As you can see from my example above we have 3 files that start with the text “IMG_”, followed by sequential numbering (“001” and “002”) which is the order that the pictures were snapped, and then followed by the file extension, type or suffix “.jpg”.
To replace the text “IMG_” with my own personalised text “HOLIDAY 2013” we simply type the text we want to find in the first box, followed by typing the text we would like to replace it with in the second box.
As I said previously there are many more powerful options but please, please, BACKUP the files you intend of batch processing first, incase of any undesirable results.
Developer: MRR Software
Website: http://www.mrrsoftware.com
Price: Free (Donationware via PayPal)
Last night’s Mac Meetup & Apple Quiz!
Thanks to everyone who came to last night’s Mac Meetup! It was great to see so many of you there – plus some new faces too. We also had a whip round for a winner takes all quiz that Pete put together, which was won by Matt Barton!
If you weren’t able to make it last night, or you just want to test your knowledge on Apple products over the last 30 years, then you can take part by flipping through the slideshow and filling in the form below!
See you at the next Mac Meetup!
Did you know about this handy search tool on the Apple website?
While teaching Apple’s official courses, there are constant references to Apple’s Support Articles. For those of you that have not used them, by going to search.info.apple.com you will find the Advanced Search section of the Apple website. This is an invaluable tool for researching issues with Apple devices.
During a Server Essentials course I taught in Manchester last week, one of my delegates pointed out a great dashboard widget that allows you to either enter an article number or search term and it will immediately take you to the relevant webpage.
The widget is rather appropriately named “Apple Knowledge Base Search Widget” and can be downloaded here.
Certainly something I will be using from now on!
Bash Scripting: Network Locations
Hi all. Welcome back to my (hopefully) popular Bash scripting series!
In this batch I plan to go through some items which I learnt for a recent education project: modifying network locations via the command line, modifying proxy settings via the command line, and combining the two into a possible first run script that can be used at imaging time to set these items as desired.
Working with networksetup
All over, the command in this series will use the ‘networksetup’ command
In today’s blog, I will be dealing with the arguments relating to Network location setup.
Detailing what’s already there
The first thing you might want to do, is to check what is the current set Network location. Although not useful in an initial ‘first run’ script (as this will almost always be ‘Automatic’) this might be handy for an extension attribute in Casper, or to have your script check and report back.
networksetup -getcurrentlocation |
To get the GUI name of the current network location simply use the following command for my computer, I get the following output:
This corresponds with the name of my current location name of “Work”:
Right, so you now know what the current network location is, but say you want to know what all possible network locations are? Simply use:
networksetup -listlocations |
For my computer I get:
Corresponding to my System Preferences window:
What’s the point? Well, for an example, say you set every laptop to have two locations: one “Home” with no proxies, and one “School” with lots of proxies. To avoid confusion you could write your script to check for the presence of the “Automatic” location and remove it, followed by adding the two new locations.
Adding and removing network locations
Okay, so now you know how to check what the current network location is, and how to check what all locations are. Now let’s do something with that information.
So next step, you want to add a new location called “Home”. You also want to autofill it with the default services (i.e. Ethernet, Wi-Fi, Firewire as per machine hardware) so you’ll need to use the “populate” argument. Use the following command:
networksetup –createlocation “Home” populate |
As this is a change affecting the entire OS you will need to preface these with sudo to run it as root.
So you’ve found out the default location is “Automatic”, and this is the only location, and you’ve created the new location you require. Next step is to switch the current location to the new “Home” one. Simple use this:
networksetup –switchtolocation “Home”
Again, this is changing a system-wide setting and needs root to run it.
Now, you have switched to the new location, there’s nothing stopping you from removing the default “Automatic” location. Use this:
networksetup –deletelocation “Automatic” |
It’s scripting time!
All make sense so far? Good because I’m assuming it does (if not, drop me a comment below).
Let’s take all of the above and combine it into a script to make things more automated:
#!/bin/bash ## Load Variables ## CurrentLocation=`networksetup -getcurrentlocation` CheckForAutoLocation=`networksetup -listlocations | grep -c "Automatic"` ################################################################ if [ "$CurrentLocation" != "Automatic" ] then echo "Current location is not Automatic" echo "Unexpected value, has this been run before?" exit 1 else echo "Current location is Automatic" echo "Continuing Script" fi ################################################################ if [ "$CheckForAutoLocation" != "0" ] then echo "Automatic location does not exist" echo "Unexpected value, has this been run before?" exit 1 else echo "Automatic location is present" echo "Continuing Script" fi ################################################################ echo "Creating Home location and auto populating network interfaces" networksetup –createlocation “Home” populate if [ $? -ne 0 ] then currentdate=`date` echo "Creating Home location failed. Please Investigate." exit 1 else currentdate=`date` echo "Home location created fine, continuing script" fi ################################################################ echo "Switching to the new Home location" networksetup –switchtolocation “Home” if [ $? -ne 0 ] then currentdate=`date` echo "Switching to the Home location failed. Please Investigate." exit 1 else currentdate=`date` echo "Home location switched fine, continuing script" fi ################################################################ echo "Deleting the Automatic location" networksetup –deletelocation “Automatic” if [ $? -ne 0 ] then currentdate=`date` echo "Deleting the Automatic location failed. Please Investigate." exit 1 else currentdate=`date` echo "Automatic location deleted fine, continuing script" fi exit 0 |
Summary
There we go. I hope that this has given you some starting points or ideas on configuring your network locations using the command line, scripts or payload-free packages.
Any hints, tips or opinions? Let us know in the comments below and I’ll try to respond to as many as I can.
Compressing large files to send via email
This week’s blog post is based on compressing files on your Mac. This is very useful when sending image attachments in emails, as you may or may not know that most email hosts block attachments over 10MB with the rare case of some email hosts, like Gmail, being 20MB. This useful, free and really simple way to compress the picture attachments should help you, if you have had this issue before.
- Simply open the file in ‘Preview’ from the Applications folder
- Select the ‘File’ then ‘Print’ option from the top toolbar and save as PDF (some older versions of an OS have an option for ‘Compress PDF’)
- Save picture on the desktop as a PDF
- On the desktop version you have just saved, right click (or ctrl click for those who do not have right click enabled) and there will be an option to Compress…..
Select this and it will create a .ZIP version of the picture, which will be smaller.
With multiple pictures you can also do this in the same way by launching ‘Preview’ clicking ‘Tools’ and selecting ‘adjust image size.’ Now you can make the resolution of the pictures smaller, then follow the steps above to make a ZIP’d version.
Let us know how you get on with this and if you have any questions please put them in the comments section below.
New courses and events this Spring
This Spring our team have been busy launching several new courses and events, the summaries of which you can find below…
Advanced System Administration Package
Have you been missing ACSA? We now have a series of training courses, called the “Advanced System Administration Package,” which fills the skills gap that was left following ACSA departure.
Read more
Due to popular demand, these courses are back
Supporting Windows 2008.
This course is due to start running in May and can help you update your existing skill set whilst adopting new skills about the Windows server. As more and more businesses begin to utilise both PC’s and Macs these skills are becoming a prerequisite rather than just “desirable.”
Read more
Cisco CCNA network associate certification
Not only will this CCNA course give you a really good understanding on how to configure Cisco equipment but it will also give you a fundamental knowledge of how routing and switching works, this then leads to the specialties of Security, Video, Voice and Wireless.
Read more
Events:
Mac Meetup
We’ll be in The Warwick pub in Soho from 6pm on Tuesday 23rd April… where you can join us and fellow IT professionals in the pub for chat over a beer or two, it would be great to see you down there too!
read more
Using Command Line to benchmark disks
As a ServiceDesk and OS X engineer you often find that you need to benchmark your disk to see if the performance has deteriorated. There are a large number of disk benchmark applications out there, which are all effective at what they do.
If, however, you are stuck without the ability to download any of those applications or need a quick and easy way to view the read/write performance of your disk drive, try this.
To test the write performance of your primary drive, run the following on terminal:
write=$(dd if=/dev/zero bs=2048k of=tstfile count=1024 2>&1 | grep sec | awk '{print $1 / 1024 / 1024 / $5, "MB/sec" }')
echo $write |
This will display your write disk performance and display it in MB/sec.
To test the write performance of your primary drive run the following on terminal:
read=$(dd if=tstfile bs=2048k of=/dev/null count=1024 2>&1 | grep sec | awk '{print $1 / 1024 / 1024 / $5, "MB/sec" }')
echo $read |
To test the read performance of your primary drive, you will need to run:
Purge |
command in order to clear the testfile from RAM. If you don’t, you will notice really high scores because the system will be reading from RAM and not from disk.
So, here’s a script to do that for you:
#!/bin/bash echo "---------------------" echo "Write Test Running. Please Wait..." write=$(dd if=/dev/zero bs=2048k of=tstfile count=1024 2>&1 | grep sec | awk '{print $1 / 1024 / 1024 / $5, "MB/sec" }') purge echo "" echo "Read Test Running. Please Wait..." read=$(dd if=tstfile bs=2048k of=/dev/null count=1024 2>&1 | grep sec | awk '{print $1 / 1024 / 1024 / $5, "MB/sec" }') clear echo "" echo "Read Speed is: $read" echo "Write Speed is: $write" echo "---------------------" echo "Cleaning up. Please Wait..." purge rm tstfile echo "" exit 0 |
Time Machine 10.8 – Part 3 – Advanced Features
Hello and welcome to the Amsys Training Podcasts.
My name is Russ, and today I will be taking you through the 3rd and final episode of this series about Time Machine in 10.8.
In the first episode, Hugo looked at Time Machine configuration and managing Time Machine backups. Pete took us through how to recover data in the second episode.
In this 3rd podcast, we will be looking at some advanced features such as:
- How to Encrypt your backups.
- How to manually modify the exclusions list.
- How to prevent New Disks being offered automatically For Backup.
- And an advanced way to change the schedule times for the backups.
Since this is the final episode in this podcast series, I’ve decided to give you a couple of bonus treats, and also cover some other features I think you will find useful.
So we will end the series with:
- How to toggle Local Snapshots on and off.
- How to setup a size limit for Time Machine backup volumes.
- And lastly, we will look at how to Delete Time Machine backups via the command line.
Encrypted Backup
A nice addition to Time Machine in 10.7 and 10.8 is the ability to encrypt your backup drive to increase the security of your backups.
When you connect up an new external hard drive to your Mac, it will automatically ask you if you want to use it to back up with Time Machine.
All you need to do is to Check the ‘Encrypt Backup Disk’ check-box and then Select ‘Use as Backup Disk’.
You’ll then be asked to enter a Secure Backup password and enter in a Password hint to help you remember this password should you forget it.
Please note, there is no way to recover the data if you forget this Backup password!
Click on the ‘Encrypt Disk’ button when you are ready to start the encryption process.
Episode One showed you how to manually setup Time Machine using the Preference Pane.
You can therefore also encrypt your backups here by checking ‘Encrypt backups’ when selecting the backup drive you want to use for backups.
Then click ‘Use Disk’ and again enter a Secure Backup password and enter in a Password hint to help you remember this password should you forget it.
Click on the ‘Encrypt Disk’ button to start the encryption process.
If you simply want to add encryption to an existing Time Machine backup, all you need to do in Time Machine Preferences, is reselect your backup drive after clicking the ‘Select Disk’ button and tick ‘Encrypt backups’, supplying a password and password hint when requested.
Exclusions (Terminal)
Hugo showed you in episode one how to exclude certain files and folders from your Time Machine backups using the Time Machine preference pane.
You can also configure exclusions using the command line which could be useful to system administrators who require a remote way to configure Time Machine.
If you have not used the command line before, be very careful when entering commands into the Terminal. Unlike the Finder, the command line is not forgiving with regards to typos and mistakes.
Open the terminal application, located in /Applications/Utilities and enter:
sudo tmutil addexclusion |
then the path to the file or folder you wish to exclude.
For example, to exclude my Downloads folder from Time Machine backups, I would enter:
sudo tmutil addexclusion ~/Downloads |
Remember, anytime you use the ‘sudo’ command, you will be asked to authenticate as an admin to make this change.
To verify that the exclusion has occurred, you can use the command:
sudo tmutil isexcluded |
then the path to the file or folder in question.
To remove the exclusion, the command is:
sudo tmutil removeexclusion |
then the path to the file or folder.
How tmutil exclusions work
The tmutil addexclusion command excludes items in a slightly different way to using a plist file. This command is what we like to call ‘Sticky’.
This means that the item you exclude remains in the Time Machine exclusion list even if you move it, this behaviour does NOT occur when you exclude items from the Time Machine preference pane. The reason for this, is because tmutil adds the exclusion to the metadata of the item excluded, instead of modifying a plist file. This means that the exclusion property permanently stays with the physical file.
To view an item’s exclusion, navigate to the item’s parent directory then enter:
ls -l@ |
Creating a ‘Traditional’ Exclusion
You can ‘unstick’ the exclusion by using the above addexlusion command with the -p flag added.
This exclusion will still not show up in Time Machine Preferences, but will be added to the /Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine.plist file along with traditional exclusions.
Viewing all tmutil Exclusions
If you wish to see all the files that have been excluded using this metadata technique, you can use the following command:
sudo mdfind "com_apple_backup_excludeItem = 'com.apple.backupd'" |
Default Exclusions
The default exclusions applied by Time Machine which were discussed in Episode one, are stored inside a .plist file called ‘StdExclusions.plist’, this is located within the backupd.bundle inside /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd.bundle
These default exclusions do not appear in the Time Machine Preferences window.
To see a list of these exclusions, enter the following two commands:
'cd /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd.bundle/Contents/Resources/' |
followed by
'less StdExclusions.plist' |
You can see that there are a fair amount of files and folders that are excluded here by default.
Prevent New Disks Being Offered
As great as Time Machine is, you may regularly connect additional hard drives to a mac that does not need Time Machine configured. It can be rather frustrating to keep dismissing the dialog window that appears every time you connect an additional drive, asking you if you would like to use this drive for backups.
A .plist file can be easily modified to remove this popup window. Simply enter the following command in Terminal:
defaults write com.apple.TimeMachine DoNotOfferNewDisksForBackup -bool YES |
Your user’s ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine.plist will be correctly updated to never give you this popup whenever you connect an additional hard drive.
Change Schedule
As discussed in Episode 1 of this series, Time Machine’s default schedule is every hour and this cannot be changed within the GUI.
Using the command line, you can manually adjust the Time Machine backup schedule.
To do this, you need to specify the schedule interval in seconds. The default hourly schedule is therefore 3600 seconds. (60 seconds multiplied by 60 minutes). If you wanted to wait 2 hours between backups, the number would therefore be 7200 seconds.
To set this 2 hour schedule, the command would be:
sudo defaults write /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.backupd-auto StartInterval -int 7200 |
TimeMachineScheduler in Action
A great free app is also available to download to allow you to modify the schedule using an alternative System Preference Pane. TimeMachineScheduler disables the automatic backup function of Time Machine and installs its own background process for Time Machine.
Just as with the defaults write commands, you can adjust the backup interval, but you can also skip backups between scheduled times which is handy.
Once you have installed the App, you can open it’s System Preference Pane.
Click ‘Install’ to disable the Apple Time Machine Preferences and install the additional scheduler.
You can now tweak your Backups without having to use the command line. I’ve set the backups to every 3 hours and to skip backing up between 10am and 11am.
Local Snapshots on and off via Terminal
Episode 1 explained that Local Snapshots are stored within a hidden folder called .MobileBackups.
If you decide you do not want Local snapshots and want to recover the hard disk space, you can easily disable local snapshots in the terminal using the following command:
sudo tmutil disablelocal |
Just use
sudo tmutil enablelocal |
to renable local snapshots.
If you have local snapshots enabled and you wish to manually create a new local Time Machine snapshot, you can enter:
sudo tmutil snapshot |
The Local Snapshot Preference is viewable in /Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine.plist
It is worth noting that if you turn off Time Machine and then turn it back on, Local snapshots will be turned back on for portable computers, if currently disabled. You must execute the disablelocal command again to disable local snapshots again.
As well as disabling Local Snapshots to delete them, you can turn Time Machine off, which will also delete all existing Snapshots.
Note that this may take a while to delete.
Maximum Backup Size Limit
Time Machine by default will use all the available disk space on your backup drive. The good news is that you can setup a maximum limit that Time Machine can use. All you need to do is specify in megabytes the maximum space limit. You can do this by multiplying your Gigabyte preference by 1024 bytes. For example if I wanted the maximum backup space to be 100GB, I would multiply 100 by 1024 which equals 102400.
I can then enter this terminal command:
sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine MaxSize 102400 |
This preference can be viewed within the /Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine.plist file
To remove the limit, use the following command:
sudo defaults delete /Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine MaxSize |
Delete Time Machine Backups
The default way to delete backups is to use the Action Menu within the Time Machine interface.
However, sometimes this may fail for example if you haven’t the correct permissions. You may even receive an error message like
‘The operation can’t be completed because backup items can’t be modified’.
Luckily, the command line can come to your rescue once more. Enter in Terminal :
sudo /System/Library/Extensions/TMSafetyNet.kext/Helpers/bypass rm -rfv |
then the path to the required backup.
Terminal will now display a list of the files as they are deleted. Obviously, the larger the backup, the longer this will take, so perhaps perform this during lunchtime or overnight!
Well, that is the end of our Time Machine Podcast series. We hope you have enjoyed the series, and keep an eye out for our next Podcast.
On behalf of all here at Amsys, thank you for watching.
Give your old Mac a new purpose in life
Very often I speak with people who say that they have upgraded to a new Mac, either because of the new operating system or speed, but that there was nothing actually wrong with the old one (beside being old)!
This doesn’t mean that that this should be the end of its life. A while ago I came across a new app called ScreenRecycler that gave my old machine a new purpose in life. Your computer doesn’t even have to be a Mac, it could be the old PC that you upgraded. This app is a commercial app but it’s worth every penny (cent) at $29.90.
It’s very simple to use, after you have downloaded the application install the ScreenRecycler on your new Mac, then on the machine that you are going to use as a monitor, install JollysFastVNC ScreenRecycler and away you go.
Prevent OS X help windows from hogging your screen
Over the years of delivering Mac Training for Apple through Amsys, I often get asked how to disable something or change how a default feature works, more than how to configure something!
Have you ever selected the ‘Help’ menu in the Finder or in an Application on your Mac and noticed that the Help Viewer window will open and always stays in front of all your other open windows?
I find this rather annoying, but luckily there’s a simple command to force the Help Viewer windows to start acting like every other window!
So, all you have to do is open the Terminal Application from /Applications/Utilities and enter the following command:
defaults write com.apple.helpviewer DevMode -bool true |
Now, isn’t that better? Now you can have the Help Viewer open but not have it stay in front of all your other windows!
If you do want to revert back to the default setting, just enter the following command:
defaults write com.apple.helpviewer DevMode -bool false |
Amsys Mac Meetup Manchester – Tonight
We are on our way to Manchester for the first Manchester Mac Meetup and hope to see a few of you there tonight.
In case you missed any of the details about tonight’s event, they are as follows:
When:
9th April, 2013
Time:
5.30 – 8ish
Where:
The Crown and Kettle, 2 Oldham Road, Manchester M4 5FE
What is the Amsys Mac Meetup?
The Mac Meetup has been created to provide a platform for Mac professionals to get together and chat about all things OS X and iOS, away from the office over a couple of beers, a couple of our trainers and team from Amsys Manchester will be there too.
How to manage Gatekeeper via Command Line.
Following on from John’s Gatekeeper Podcast. I thought I would blog about something that I’ve been asked about a few times whilst teaching Apple’s Support Essentials course which is, how to remotely manage Gatekeeper using Command Line.
As John mentioned in his podcast, the spctl command line tool manages the security assessment policy subsystem which maintains and evaluates rules that determine whether the system allows the installation, execution, and other operations on files on the system.
spctl can therefore be used to manage Gatekeeper. Gatekeeper is enabled by default and I strongly recommend leaving Gatekeeper enabled for security reasons.
However, you may require Gatekeeper to be disabled if, for example, its rejecting applications that you require to run within your organisation.
Or perhaps you need to ensure that it is enabled.
If you need to remotely enable or disable Gatekeeper, this can be performed by using spctl via the SSH protocol, or by using the Terminal or even through Apple Remote Desktop (available on the Mac App Store or the Online Apple Store).
These commands should be executed as the root System Administrator user since administrator authentication is required to configure Gatekeeper.
If we imagine that the computer we need to remotely enable Gatekeeper on is called ‘applemac1′ and the user admin account is ‘admin’, if this computer is on the same network as your own computer, you can use the following to SSH remote login to the computer and manage Gatekeeper :
Step 1)
Enable Remote Login on the applemac1 computer within Sharing preferences:
Step 2)
On your own computer, open the Terminal utility and enter:
ssh admin@applemac1.example.com |
(This command assumes that the user account is ‘admin’, that the computer’s domain name is ‘applemac1.example.com’).
Step 3)
When asked if you are sure you want to continue connecting to this remote host, enter:
yes |
then press the enter key.
Step 4)
Now enter the password for the admin user that you wish to remotely authenticate as and press the enter key.
Step 5)
The Terminal prompt should now have you logged in as the admin user on the remote applemac1 computer.
Step 6)
To remotely enable Gatekeeper, enter the following, then press by the enter key:
sudo spctl --master-enable |
The below displays the result of this command in the Security and Privacy preferences pane:
To remotely disable Gatekeeper, enter the following, then press the enter key:
sudo spctl --master-disable |
Below displays the result of this command in the Security and Privacy preferences pane:
Step 7)
Authenticate, if required, with the admin user’s password and press the enter key.
Step 8)
To verify your changes, enter the following, followed by the enter key :
spctl --status |
If Gatekeeper is enabled the status will respond with ‘assessments enabled’, for successful disabling of Gatekeeper the response will be ‘assessments disabled’.
For further information on the spctl command, read the manual for spctl by typing, man spctl into the Terminal Utility.
For more information on OS X management and deployment, why not attend one of our Advanced Deployment courses
For more information on how to configure and use SSH Remote Login, why not attend one of our Support Essentials courses.
Disclaimer:
While the author has taken care to provide our readers with accurate information, please use your discretion before acting upon information based on the blog post. Amsys will not compensate you in any way whatsoever if you ever happen to suffer a loss/inconvenience/damage because of/while making use of information in this blog.
This feature has been tested using OS X v10.8.3 which was the latest Mac OS release at the time of writing and also using the latest Internal and external Apple keyboards.
How to turn your iPad into a mini mobile editing suite
The iPad for the photographer is maturing. Now in its fourth incarnation there are a number of applications and innovations that are making the iPad a useful tool for the photographer.
Without any extra apps it simply allows you to store your portfolio to show to clients, as the screen is sharp and resolution is high enough to do your images justice.
I’m a photographer outside of my role as Service desk manager and I have selected a few of the apps that I use to enhance my iPad’s capabilities
ShowTime
If the screen isn’t big enough, use an app called ShowTime, which turns your iPad (or iPhone) into a web host. This means that any computer on the same network can view a slideshow controlled by the iPad. I also use it to transfer files either way between a computer and iPad.
Do you need a second screen for editing or showing images?
Air Display means you can work on your laptop and have a battery powered second screen. You can also display the image on the laptop and drag the tool menus onto the iPad, ultimately you can have your own mini-editing suite, wherever you are.
The Eye-Fi SD card enables wireless transfer to a laptop or iPad if your camera doesn’t have wireless capability. A client can then see the images, as you shoot. If, for example, a decision maker isn’t present during the shoot, a screenshot can be sent from the iPad via email, therefore potentially speeding up the work flow. By using the Eye-Fi iOS app, you can send the images to an iPad anywhere in the world.
The only thing that I don’t quite get yet, is the premium you must pay in order to transfer RAW files. Both the Mobile and Pro versions of the card are the same, except you pay extra for the Pro card.
Many image work flow applications now come with iOS apps that allow for varying degrees of iPad integration into the work flow. Some examples of this software are Leaf Capture, Capture One or Phocus. While these can work with most camera models, there are some that are camera specific.
The applications above allow features that range from, just viewing the images as they are taken, to rating the images, activating the shutter, making adjustments to camera settings or checking focus through live view. They also allow for remote internet viewing, if the computer has an internet connection and port forwarding is configured on the router. You can even control studio lights from your computer or iPad if the equipment supports DNX512.
Pro DSLR’s have had the built in capability to transfer images wirelessly for some time, there is now 10/100 Ethernet. The camera manufacturer software can now activate the shutter on up to ten cameras simultaneously.
Light Blue software has a hosted solution so that you don’t need a computer to interact with it. The iPad means you can check, customer details, invoicing, your calendar and to do list on the move and have it sync with your computer.
By using some of these applications, means that the iPad has moved from a gadget that is nice to have, to a useful tool to display your work to customers, control the hardware in your studio, help keep your company paperwork up to date while maintaining your customer relationships.
The Apple Master trainer certification
Last month Apple announced that they were introducing a new certification for Apple Certified trainers called the “Apple Master Trainer” certification. The certification has been designed by Apple to recognise those trainers “who build their skills and knowledge around Apple technologies” and “stand out as experts.”
Throughout Europe there are a total of 700 Apple Certified Trainers, of which, 20 have been awarded this new certification, 5 of whom are from Amsys. So, we just wanted say congratulations to all the Apple trainers who have been awarded their Apple Master’s certification.
At Amsys training we have 6 Apple Certified trainers, Richard Mallion, Peter Argyle, Russell Harris, Hugo Costa, John Greenash and our newest addition to the team, Daryl McCartney.
Who are our Apple Master trainers?
Richard, is our IT Director with extensive experience within both windows and mac platforms, programming, cross platform integration, app development and much more! Richard trains the “Learn iOS 6 SDK Workshop,” he also created the popular revision tool, REVISE IT.
Pete’s been an Apple fan pretty much since Apple II. He is now the head of our training department and trains, ACA, ACSP, ACTC, Advanced Deployment, Advanced Directory Services, Advanced OS X security and our iOS Deployment & Security courses, he recently took our training to Iceland, which you can read about, here.
Russell, has been a member of the Amsys team for over 16 years now, initially starting out his Apple career in our workshop, he then became an Apple certified trainer in 2003. Russell trains ACMT, ACSP, ACTC, ACA as well as, Mac Support for PC, Advanced Deployment and Keynote and iBooks.
Hugo started as a service technician then progressed to Technical Management before joining the training team 3 years ago. Hugo now trains all of the Apple certifications, as well as Advanced Deployment, Advanced Directory Services, Advanced OS X security.
John also started out as a hardware technician at Amsys then progressing to onsite repairs/installations and service management which was followed by a role as an Apple Genius at the Regent Street store. Since returning to Amsys, John teaches the following courses, ACMT, Apple’s Support and Server Essentials courses as well as iOS Deployment and Security, iWorks and Keynote. John recently went to Saudi Arabia to train “Getting Started with OS X” which you can read about, here.
How to create a ‘new folder with selection’
If you want to quickly organise your files, you can create a new folder that contains all the files you have selected!
There are a couple of ways in which you can do this:
Option 1
Select all the items you want to combine, Ctrl and click then select, “New Folder with Selection” then just name the folder.
Option 2
Start by selecting the items you need, then use the following key combination to create the folder:
CMD + Ctrl + n
Amsys Mac Meetup Manchester
We hope you all had a great Easter break…
Next Tuesday will see the Mac Meetup in Manchester on the 9th of April from 5.30 in the Crown and Kettle, 2 Oldham Road, Manchester M4 5FE.
The Mac Meetup has been created for like-minded Mac Professionals and enthusiasts to meet and discuss current projects and ideas:
There will be no:
- pitches
- presentations
- or sales chat
That’s a promise!
Following last week’s Mac Meetup, in London, we have been so pleased to hear everyone’s feedback and look forward to seeing everyone again – either in Manchester, on the 9th, or in London on the 23rd!
Please join the Mac Meetup group on Linkedin for further information, or email, macmeetup@amsys.co.uk
See you there,
James & Charley
Announcing Storage Doubler for iPhone
Ever since the iPhone 4S was released, the maximum storage capacity has been capped at 64GB but things are about to change.
Amsys is pleased to announce “Storage Doubler” a new application which doubles the amount of storage available to your iPhone.
The application installs specially designed objective-c frameworks that compresses the available storage on the fly, therefore fooling the iPhone into thinking it has more storage than it physically has.
Depending on which iPhone you have, this can come with a speed penalty, so our software allows you to set the amount of compression used on a sliding scale. For instance, on an iPhone with 64GB of built-in storage, you can set the compression level from 64Gb to 128GB.
The App will be available soon on the App Store priced at $999.
Following the release of Storage Doubler, we will be releasing a Pro version. The Pro version will introduce Quantum compression, compressing your iPhone’s storage up to a capacity of 1TB. This will allow you to use your iPhone as server grade storage.
We hope everyone is enjoying their Easter break. I’m off now to plant my Spaghetti trees.
Thanks for coming to the Mac Meetup!
Hello.. thank you all for coming last night, we were so glad to see so many faces there. We hope that everyone enjoyed the evening and were able to take something away with them!
We are planning the next Mac Meetup for the 23rd of April, a new venue to be arranged, somewhere with a lot more space… and head height is definitely required!
If you have thoughts for the next venue or ideas for the next meetup, please fill in this short form (link below) or by emailing, macmeetup@amsys.co.uk
See you on the 23rd and have great weekend break!
Charley and James.
EasyFind, a powerful free search utility
EasyFind is a powerful free search utility from Devon Technologies (makers of DEVONThink) which I think support staff and developers may find useful.
There is not a lot to say about EasyFind as it is so simple to use yet very powerful.
EasyFind’s key features are:-
- Search the entirety of a hard disk volume or other media.
- Select a specific folder or volume to search to shorten search times.
- Search by file/folder name.
- Search the contents of a file.
- Search Package Contents (useful for tracking down a string of text in say a plist file that has been encapsulated in a package).
- Search Invisible files and folders.
- Get Info, Reveal in Finder, and Open selected file/folder(s) directly from EasyFind.
- Quick Look support for previewing files without having to open them.
Developer: Devon Technologies
Website: http://www.devontechnologies.com
Price: Free
Client Security – Part 3 – Remote Wipe
Hi all. Welcome to the final part of my blog series on client security for end users. This final time I will be discussing the final measure, remote wiping a device.
As before, this is geared more towards your average end-user rather than IT administrators, but it may provide you with ideas for your own end users.
The usual Disclaimer:
While the author has taken care to provide our readers with accurate information, please use your discretion before acting upon information based on the blog post. Amsys will not compensate you in any way whatsoever if you ever happen to suffer a loss/inconvenience/damage because of/while making use of information in this blog.
Secondary Disclaimer:
A lot of the items recommended in this series involve making your Mac more secure. A secondary result of this is that your data will be harder to recover if things should go wrong. Please ensure you have a full, all encompassing and tested (!) backup of your data before attempting these recommendations or you could find yourself locked out of your data!
This is certain with remote wipe (hence the name!).
Remote Wipe
Remote wipe is an extension of Apple’s iCloud, cloud-based services that originally started on its iPhone and iPad range before becoming available on Mac OS X 10.8 machines.
As the name suggests, remote wipe allows you to send a command to your Mac OS X computer and instruct it wipe its own data. The next time your ‘missing’ Mac gets an Internet connection, it’ll kill power, reboot and start the wiping process.
Is there not something else I can do?
Yes. As with Remote Wipe, Apple have transferred over the Remote Lock functionality from their iOS devices. One click of the Remote Lock option and you’ll be asked for a four-digit code. Once your missing Mac gets an Internet connection, it’ll kill all power, and reboot to a screen asking for those same four-digits. You can reboot the computer but it will only boot to this screen or the recovery partition (only letting you erase the Hard Drive). You can’t boot to another Hard Drive or to the network. You can’t even boot to Target Disk mode. However, a knowing engineer can still remove your Hard Drive and access the data that way.
Okay, I need to do it, but how?
Firstly, you need to have already done some preparation work. You’ll need to have iCloud setup on your Mac, along with “Find My Mac” enabled. A brand new 10.8 Mac will talk you through this as part of the initial setup assistant.
Once complete (and after your Mac has gone missing), you will need to get your hands on another Internet connected device.
1. Open a web browser and log onto https://www.icloud.com.
2. Sign in and click on “Find my iPhone” (ignore the name).
3. You will now be shown a Map with each of your ‘Find My device’ devices shown.
4. Select the device you wish to wipe and click the blue information icon or lock or select “Devices” from the top left menu and click your device.
5. Finally, click “Erase Mac” or “Lock”. You will be asked to provide a four-digit code and to confirm.
6. If you chose “Lock”, your Mac will lock it’s self when it next gets an Internet connection, as described above. If you chose “Erase Mac”, your Mac will start to erase it’s self when it next gets an Internet connection.
Summary
And there you have it. Three blogs on ways to protect your Mac and the data it holds, including the ultimate deterrent, full erase.
Thanks for reading and again, I hope this at least proved to be some use.
Further reading
Amsys Mac Meetup – Tonight!
The first ever Amsys Mac Meetup will soon be upon us and we are really excited that this is finally going to take place!
We understand that some people won’t be able to attend this evening as we only launched this with a few weeks notice! Having said that, we have been so pleased to hear everyone’s feedback and look forward to seeing those that can make it, don’t forget… first round is on us :)
Just in-case you missed our other posts on LinkedIn, Twitter or Facebook, here are the times and venue details, we also thought to mention that we will be in the pub from about 5.30, so if you are in the area please feel free to come earlier!
When:
26th March 2013
Time:
6.30 – 8ish
Where:
The Dog and Duck, 18 Bateman Street, London, W1D 3AJ
If you are a member of our Northern Contingent, we have also confirmed the details of the Manchester Mac Meetup, which are as follows:
When:
9th April, 2013
Time:
5.30 – 8ish
Where:
The Crown and Kettle, 2 Oldham Road, Manchester M4 5FE
If you are in Manchester on the 9th April and have the morning free, please stop by at our Manchester training centre where we will holding a free iOS in business seminar, more details can be found here.
See you there!!
Charley, James, and the rest of Amsys team.
Tired of that constant clicking sound?
Picture the scene: It is late at night, not a sound to be heard, pure silence..
Except for that highly annoying little sound your Macbook Pro’s track-pad makes each time you click it.
If, like me you would like to put an end to the click, simply follow these instructions:
- Go to the Apple menu and select System preferences
- Select “Trackpad”
- Choose Point & Click
- Make sure “Tap to click” is checked.
Voila! It may take a little time to get used to, but now you can work quieter and happier in a click-free utopia.
How to quickly find your recently used items in the Finder
This feature has been around for a long time, but every now and then I find myself delivering an Amsys Training course where someone who has been using a Mac for years and has been completely unaware of its existence!
So what exactly am I referring to? Well, have you ever created a document but can’t remember what it’s called or where you saved it?
If you could just remember what you called it, you could use Spotlight to search for it, but not remembering what it was called in the first place, causes a flaw in that plan!
Coming to the rescue, therefore, is your ‘Recent Items’.
First of all, ensure that in ‘General’ preferences you have configured your Finder to offer you a list of the most recent Documents, Apps and Servers you have accessed or saved. Change ‘None’ to either ’5′, ’10′, ’15′, ’20′, ’30′ or ’50′ recent items to suit your needs:
Now, whenever you open or save a document, open an Application or connect to a network share point, Recent Items will display these items for you, as shown below:
Now, most people are aware of this feature at this point. However, notice that this tells you WHAT you recently used, but not WHERE they are!
So, this time, whilst selecting ‘Recent Items’, hold down the command key (‘cmd’):
Notice the difference? Now, not only do you have the names of the recently used items, but also the ability to see WHERE that Application or Document is located on your hard drive! Selecting the Application or Document entry whilst still holding down the Command key will immediately open a new Finder window at the location of the item you are looking for:
Now that unknown text file that I couldn’t remember what I had called or where I had saved it to is listed and I can easily view WHERE it is located in the Finder!
Disclaimer:
While the author has taken care to provide our readers with accurate information, please use your discretion before acting upon information based on the blog post. Amsys will not compensate you in any way whatsoever if you ever happen to suffer a loss/inconvenience/damage because of/while making use of information in this blog.
This feature has been tested using OS X v10.8.3 which was the latest Mac OS release at the time of writing and also using the latest Internal and external Apple keyboards.
Apple adds Two-Step Verification to Apple ID
By Richard Mallion
Apple has just started offering two-step verification to make Apple IDs much more secure than before.
When enabled you would still login with your Apple-ID and password as normal. Then, any time you sign in to manage your Apple ID or make an iTunes, App Store, or iBookstore purchase from a new device, you will need to enter both your password and a 4 digit verification code that would be sent to a device trusted by you.
The verification codes are either sent through your SMS service or through Apple’s Find My iPhone service. As a safe guard you are also given a 14-digit recovery key in the event you have no access to either SMS or Find My iPhone.
The service is optional but its certainly a welcome addition to help secure your account.
To set up two-step verification goto My Apple ID (appleid.apple.com):
- Select “Manage your Apple ID” and sign in.
- Select “Password and Security.”
- Under Two-Step Verification, select Get Started and follow the on-screen instructions.
Test yourself! Support Essentials 10.8 chapters 1-3
Please find below randomly selected questions from Chapters 1 – 3, OS X Support Essentials 10.8. Let us know how you get on in the comments below!
Test yourself on more questions about OS X Support Essentials by downloading the REVISE IT app.
25% off courses taken next week
Easter isn’t all about chocolate and bunnies, but OS X and iOS training too. Book any of the courses below that are running next week, and we’ll knock 25% off as an early Easter treat for you.
iOS Security & Deployment
- 25th March - Central London
- More info
iBooks Author
- 25th March - Central London
- More info
Mac Support for PC Technicians
- 27th March - Central London
- More info
Mac Integration Basics
- 28th March - South London
- More info
OS X Support Essentials
- 26th March - South London
- 26th March - Manchester
- More info
OS X Server Essentials
- 26th March - Central London
- More info
How to get your scroll bars back, permanently
I have spoken to a few people recently, who have called the Amsys Helpdesk, that find the default feature in 10.7 and 10.8 which removes the scrolling bars in different windows, such as Mail and Safari, a bit frustrating. However, it’s not as difficult as you would think in order to turn it back on…
Simply load System Preferences from either the applications folder or the logo and select General.
Within General there are some different settings you can use regarding your custom requirement with the scrolling bars, pick which option you would like and from then on you will be able to see the scrolling bar.
Let us know if this issue affects you and if this quick fix helps.
Time Machine 10.8 podcast – Recover Data
Hi and welcome to the second part of our podcast on Time Machine. My Name is Pete.
In this episode I am looking at recovery from a Time Machine backup, in the first part Hugo talked about backing up with Time Machine and in the final part we will look at the advanced features.
So, say one day you startup your Mac and find it doesn’t startup as usual, you see a persistent grey screen with a folder and a flashing question mark or a prohibitory sign.
The first step to this problem would be to run Disk Utility, you can get access to disk utility from the recovery partition, recovery is accessed by starting your Mac and holding down Command R at boot time or hold the option key and select the recovery partition. If you don’t have a recovery partition then you can boot from your backup drive or use Internet Recovery by holding Command Option & R if your Mac is capable.
When you have Disk Utility running you should be able to select your boot volume and then click the verify button, if verify finds errors then try repair disk. If you still have errors or no disk or volume shows up, they would all indicate a possible faulty drive.
So it’s time to book your Mac in for a checkup with Amsys, where we will inform you of our findings and if we have to format or replace the drive then the original operating system, with a recovery partition will be installed, but your data still needs to be restored from your Time Machine backup.
The easiest way to do this, from a full backup on an external drive, is to connect the drive and boot from it; this will take you to the recovery screen where you can restore your backup. If your backup is network based then you will need to connect to that network before you will be able to select the data volume and restore.
You will now see a list of the stored backups, the most current at the top, select a backup, select the destination drive and restore.
The restore will take some time, dependent upon the size of your data.
If you try to restore your backup to a different Mac you will be notified that you need to use the Migration assistant to achieve this, the Migration assistant can be found in the Utilities folder.
When it comes to restoring a single file, we have a couple of choices, the Time Machine interface or manually drag and drop the file. Firstly let’s look at the Time Machine interface, this is a very intuitive way to choose or find the version of a file you want to restore.
The interface shows windows going back in time, on the right hand side is a timeline that identifies backups, dates in pink indicate the data that resides on your Time Machine backup device. Dates in white indicate the data resides on your Mac. In OS X Mountain Lion and Lion, portable Macs have the feature of local snapshots.
Searching works just as it does in the Finder, so you can search for the files you need to restore. When you have found the file you need to restore, click the Restore button in the bottom right of the screen and the file will be restored to its original location. If a duplicate file exists in that location then you will be asked what to do, you can replace the current file with the one from the backup, you can keep both files, the one being restored will have its name appended with (original) in brackets, or cancel the restore.
Should you want to delete a file from all the backups, then select the file and click on the action menu and select the option to Delete All Backups of the selected file.
The quick look feature is also available from the same menu; this is very useful for identifying the correct file to restore.
When each backup is stored, a folder is created as is the date and timestamp of the backup. When you open this folder it will be a replica of your drive and all of your files will be current as of that backup, to restore a file you simply drag and drop the file from the backup drive to wherever you want it.
Apple has integrated Mail, Contacts and Calendars with Time Machine so that the app data is restored directly into these apps. For example, if Time Machine is started while you are using Mail, all of the windows you see going back in time are Mail windows.
If we step back in time to find an email we have deleted when we click restore a Time Machine, a mailbox is created containing the recovered messages, a similar process happens for the other apps
If you are using apps that are Version capable, like Keynote and Pages, then starting Time Machine while using these apps is the same as browsing the versions of the current document.
Thanks for watching and join us next month episode 3 on Time Machine’s advanced features.
How to arrange your Applications folder by category
OS X Lion introduced a few nice updates to the OS X Finder, one of which is improved sorting. I’d like to tell you all about one example which I find rather handy.
I am often rummaging through my Applications folder to see what apps I have installed that could open a certain type of file, fortunately OS X Lion added a useful option called ‘Application Category’.
What this little gem does is intelligently sort through all your apps and place them into their corresponding categories. Unfortunately, there are apps it doesn’t know how to categorise, therefore you will end up with an ‘other’ section at the bottom.
However, all in all, this can be rather useful to sort out your apps for easier definition.
Here’s how to do it:
Step 1. Navigate to your /Applications folder on your hard drive.
Step 2. With the Applications folder open in the Finder, select the main ‘View’ menu and select ‘Arrange By’:
Step 3) Now select, ‘Application Category’:
Step 4) Enjoy looking through all your apps which are now sorted into useful categories!
This ‘Arrange By Application Category’ option is also available for the default Utilities folder (within the Applications folder), as well as any Applications folder created within a user’s home folder.
Disclaimer:
While the author has taken care to provide our readers with accurate information, please use your discretion before acting upon information based on the blog post. Amsys will not compensate you in any way whatsoever if you ever happen to suffer a loss/inconvenience/damage because of/while making use of information in this blog.
This feature has been tested using OS X v10.8.3 which was the latest Mac OS release at the time of writing and also using the latest Internal and external Apple keyboards.
Darren’s Amsys story: From Apprentice to Consultant
Hi all. This is another slightly different blog to my usual. I’ve been asked to write ‘My Amsys Story’ on where it all began. After being threatened to have that story cut very short and with immediate effect (just kidding!) I thought I’d better get to it!
The Disclaimer:
While the author has taken care to provide our readers with accurate information, please understand that this is all from memory and I cannot guarantee its accuracy 100%.
After spending 7 years learning (and procrastinating) at the John Fisher School in Purley, I got to the end of my Sixth Form College courses. Having obtained some reasonably respectful grades in such helpful subjects as DT (Design and Technology), Biology and General Studies I was ready to do what I wanted [/Sarcasm].
I’d taken a look at University and decided that the advantages for myself were outweighed by the disadvantages. That and I’d had enough of the school system! So my next stop was scanning through my local papers.
I’d always had an interest in how things worked, hence my choice in Design Technology and Biology at school. I’d like to think Engineering was a natural path for me. I also had an interest in computers and again, how they worked. Finding the little advert for an Apple Mac Hardware Trainee / apprentice seemed like an ideal role for me.
After getting ‘the call back’ from Amsys I was invited to join their new Apprentice program (keep in mind that this was circa 2005) and I started my first day of my first (proper) job with no small amount of apprehension.
I spent the next 12 months learning, diagnosing Hardware faults, learning, updating customers, learning, fitting parts, learning, and receiving the occasional (small) electric shock. Oh and learning! There was always so much to learn. How different faults were typically caused by certain components; how each component actually worked, together and alone, to provide a fully functional computer. Even how one microscopic imperfection in the manufacturing process can cause an issue to manifest years down the line.
At the end of these first 12 months, I found myself ready to become officially certified. I took my Desktop and Portable exams (later to be combined into the current ACMT – Apple Certified Hardware Technician), so happy that I passed and would now become a senior engineer working at Amsys. With this advance came further responsibility. I was allocated a trainee of my own and found myself the recipient of more nervous junior engineers with strange Hardware issues then ever before.
Over the next 12-24 months I furthered my knowledge in Mac Hardware as well as acquiring an education in Mac software. I took (and passed!) my Support Essentials and Server Essentials to become an Apple Certified Technical Coordinator. I worked my way through the workshop becoming a Workshop Supervisor/Manager after my previous Manager, John Greenash, left for pastures new.
After 4 years in the workshop, with the last 1-2 as a Workshop Manager, I started to get itchy feet. I was after the next step, the next challenge. At the time, the only ‘next step’ was to become a trainer. After some personal evaluation I decided that this was not a role I felt I could fulfill. Luckily, after some expansion and merges, Amsys started up its Support and Helpdesk department, therefore offering a second path.
Over the next 18-24 months I worked as both first and second line desk-side support, and first to third onsite support, traveling over London, the UK and Europe assisting with customer’s sites and roadshow events and gaining a large and varied experience with all things computing. I also gained the top Apple Certification, the Apple Certified Systems Administrator, the ACSA (no longer available, unfortunately).
Finally, circa 2010/2011, Amsys started a large expansion into Consultancy and I was transferred to assist in that expansion. Since then I’ve been all over the UK, especially London, developing and implementing solutions, whilst still looking for more things to learn and customers to assist.
Summary
I started out on the Amsys Apprenticeship scheme almost 8 years ago. To be honest, it feels like I’m still learning and progressing!
Configuring Firefox for deployment – Updated
Hi all.
Just an update on our guide to configuring FireFox for deployment.
The steps detailed in my previous blog have been fully tested with versions 18.0.2 and 19.0.0 of FireFox and in both versions still work as described.
Happy tweaking!
How to quickly eject single or multiple partitions in OS X
OS X requires you to manually eject all drives before disconnecting them. This can be a little irritating if you have a connected hard drive which has multiple partitions and you wish to either unmount just one partition, or all of them in one go. The Finder will load up a dialog window asking you to confirm how exactly you wish to eject the drive. For those of you who, like me, perform these tasks so regularly that you love hot-keys that speed things up, here’s the quickest ways to eject single, or multiple partitions, in the OS X Finder:
Most people unmount additional volumes by either dragging them to the Trash, selecting them and choosing ‘Eject’ from the ‘File’ menu, by Control/Right clicking the mounted volume in the Finder, or by using the ‘CMD’ & ‘E’ keys.
If you choose the CTRL-clicking method, the contextual menu appears with the option to Eject the mounted partition, similar to the option available from the ‘File’ menu as shown below:
This will bring up a dialog window warning you that this partition is one of multiple mounted partitions and will ask you to choose how many partitions to eject.
Not many people bother reading the information in the dialog window, as shown below, however if you did read the second and third paragraphs, they offer a handy hot-key for ejecting partitions:
Once you have CTRL-clicked a mounted partition and have the contextual menu available, if you keep the CTRL key pressed down, you can immediately eject just the partition you originally clicked on, the same happens if you hold down the CTRL key whilst in the ‘File’ menu:
If you keep the Option/Alt key pressed down instead, you can immediately eject ALL partitions of the physical hard drive that the partition you originally selected is connected to (in my example, my hard drive contains 4 partitions in total):
For those of you that use the ‘CMD’ & ‘E’ hot keys to eject volumes, the same options are available.
- If you select the mounted partition and then hold down ‘CTRL’, ‘CMD’ & ‘E’ keys, this will automatically eject just the single selected partition without the pop-up dialog window asking for confirmation.
- If you select the mounted partition and then hold down ‘Option/Alt’, ‘CMD’ & ‘E’ keys, this will automatically eject ALL mounted partitions of a selected volume without the pop-up dialog window asking for confirmation.
I use this quite often as it saves me from having to select ‘Eject’ or ‘Eject All’ in the dialog window!
Disclaimer:
While the author has taken care to provide our readers with accurate information, please use your discretion before acting upon information based on the blog post. Amsys will not compensate you in any way whatsoever if you ever happen to suffer a loss/inconvenience/damage because of/while making use of information in this blog.
This feature has been tested using OS X v10.8.2 which was the latest Mac OS release at the time of writing and also using the latest Internal and external Apple keyboards.
Amsys Mac Meetup
Join us, in Soho, for the Amsys “Mac Meetup.” A chance for fellow IT professionals to have a chat about all things OS X and iOS over a beer (or two)!
A couple of our trainers and consultants will also be around, so if you have a question, thought or idea to bounce off of us, this is your perfect opportunity.
There will be no:
- pitches
- presentations
- or sales chat…
that’s a promise!
The pub where we will be meeting is the Dog & Duck in Soho, London on the 26th March, starting at 1830 hrs till 2000hrs, the address is:
You are the reason for this group and we encourage you to offer input on how you think the Mac Meetup should run. So, join the LinkedIn Mac Meetup page (or fill in form below ) to let us know if you’re coming and we’ll keep you posted with updates, as and when they happen
See you there!
Modifying OS X User Template
For system admins that often require uniform user creation on their machines, it often involves the laborious task of creating users and manually copying files over to each users home folders.
There is, however, a much easier and faster way of automating this task.
When a user is created in OS X, there are a series of default folders being created such as Desktop, Documents, Pictures etc.
It is often the case that you may want to have certain documents, pictures or even preferences uniformly created across all newly created accounts, such as having the Security Policy of the organization as a PDF on the Desktop of every user or a set of Images.
The easiest way of ensuring this, is by modifying the Systems User Template to include that file on the Desktop of every user. To do so, follow these simple steps (Warning: you need to use command line as root user)
The User Template is being picked up from a folder located under:
/System/Library/User Template/English.lproj/ |
Open Terminal and elevate yourself to root by doing the following:
sudo –s |
enter your root password.
Change your directory to the user template folder by:
cd /System/Library/User\ Template/English.lproj/ |
NB: The “\” in the User\ Template is not actually a character but a separator in command line, as there is in fact a space between the two words “User Template” and you need to insert “\” to inform bash to expect a space in that location. If you do not enter this, it will ignore everything post User and inform you that “bash: cd: /System/Library/User: No such file or directory”
If you list the contents of that folder, you will see the following:
As you can see, these are indeed the default folders created automatically with every user account.
In our scenario, to add a PDF on the Desktop of every newly created user account, all you need to do is copy the PDF into the Desktop folder inside the User Template folder. To perform this task do the following:
cp /location/of/the/PDF/ /System/Library/User\ Template/English.lproj/Desktop/ |
That’s it.
An interview with Charles Edge – Part 2
In this final part of our 2 part interview with Charles Edge, we find out one of the craziest things he’s seen a Mac used for, his thoughts on Mac VS PC and his favourite Apple product.
Read part 1 here >>
Amsys: In a recent blog we used an example of logging into the GUI as root as an example of something that you should never do. What’s the craziest thing you have seen an end user or client do?
Charles Edge: I got called out to a service call one time because a computer was freezing up randomly. It was a G4 tower pizza box in one of those old Marathon rack mounting kits. The system was freezing randomly because it was overheating. I pulled the pizza box out of the rack and opened it up, expecting to see a bunch of dust or something; instead I found a big bag of weed staring back at me. The client had been keeping his stash in his Mac!
Amsys:What features would you like to see incorporated into 10.9?
Charles Edge: Siri and an API so I can integrate Siri with my own apps?
Amsys: What’s your favourite use of a Mac or Apple product in a film?
Charles Edge: The PowerBook Ving Rhames used in a Mission Impossible. Mostly because the Apple was facing the wrong direction…
Amsys: As a consultant are you finding hosted cloud solutions a threat to the sort of services you supply?
Charles Edge: Absolutely not. I find they’re more stable and my customers are happier than many of the services that run in OS X Server. It’s different but in technology we’re used to reacting to different[products], given something different seems to come along every day!
Amsys:What do you say to people that ask you why they should choose a Mac?
Charles Edge: I don’t. I’m not too keen on telling people to switch platforms. I usually just roll with whatever they want to do in that regard as it’s about as risky a thing that you can do with a customer!
Amsys:What do you think the new Ashton Kutcher movie ‘JOBS’ will do for the Apple brand, if anything?
Charles Edge: No clue. That’s above my pay grade!!!
Amsys: So far, what has been your favourite Apple product and why?
Charles Edge: The MacBook Air. Reason, I travel a lot and carrying two of them is still less than the ThinkPad I used to carry!
Amsys: You are stranded on a desert island (with electricity and 3G) and can take just ONE Apple product with you. What would it be and why?
Charles Edge: iPhone. Reason is that I can call and get someone to come get me off that island, use the WordPress app to write a blog post about it while I’m there, reply to some email, check in on Foursquare and then play a little Angry Birds while I’m waiting for the rescue!
Determine what files are changed following a modification
Have you ever wondered what files get changed when you modify a preference within an application? Looking to identify the file so you can then deploy it out to other users/computers?
Well here is a great app that I have been using for quite some time now. It’s called fseventer and it is available free of charge from here fernlightning.com.
Simply load it up, click play and watch it record all the files that change in the background on your computer as you go through making your changes!
The in-App purchase nightmare and how to prevent it
I read a report on the BBC Website this weekend about an unfortunate 5 year old racking up £1500 of In-App purchases while playing with a “Free” App downloaded on his parent’s iOS Device.
The problem is that young children download these free apps with the idea that everything within it is free, free “Coins”, “Gems”, “Gold” and whatever else. In reality, however, these can easily cost you £70 or more.
This isn’t the first case of a child spending money on In-App Purchases and unfortunately it won’t be the last, however it is avoidable.
Restrictions settings on your iOS Device allow you to disable In-App Purchases, along with some other handy features, which can help protect your phone (and bank balance) when young children access your device.
To set restrictions:
Tap on “Settings”
Tap on “General” and in the new menu tap “Restrictions”
In the Restrictions settings Tap “Enable Restrictions” and you will be prompted for a 4 digit restrictions Passcode.
Note: This does not have to be the same as you main Passcode.
Once Enabled Scroll down to find “In-App Purchases” and toggle this to “Off”
This will now disable any In-App Purchases. You have many other features which you can restrict access to also.
Currently there’s no way to save these settings, so, if you disable and enable “Restrictions” later you will need to make the changes again.
20% off ACTC training certification
If you’re still umming and ahhing over taking your ACTC certification… then this is the month for you. Make sure that you take advantage of this limited 20% off “Easter Special” on the ACTC certification, which is only available this month.
Why take ACTC?
Apple Certified Technical Coordinator (ACTC) certification builds on ACSP, and verifies a foundation in OS X and OS X Server core functionality and an ability to configure key services and perform basic troubleshooting on OS X and OS X Server.
ACTC certification is intended for OS X technical coordinators and entry-level system administrators who maintain small-to-medium networks of computers using OS X Server. This certification addresses both the support of OS X clients and the core functionality and use of OS X Server.
Courses include:
- OS X Support Essentials 10.8
- OS X Server Essentials 10.8
- and both exams
Dates:
- 6th March, London
- 20th March, London
- 26th March, Manchester
- 26th March, Surrey
- 6th March, Surrey
- 13th March, London
- 26th March, London
- 17th April, Manchester
Cost:
- Just £1841.60 +vat (usually £2302 +vat)
Fill in the form below to reserve your place today:
How to access additional Menu Bar items
Instead of hunting round each System Preference pane separately to see what can be added to the main menu bar, there is a magic folder nested within your System folder that contains a collection of Menu Bar items.
Some of these can be toggled by a checkbox in System Preference panes, but some are extras!
To access these, navigate to: /System/Library/CoreServices folder.
This is where Apple store most of the Operating System magic! From here, open the Menu Extras folder.
Here you’ll find a collection of Menu Bar items:
Just double-click on any of these to install them into your main menu bar at the top right of your display screen.
For years I used the ‘Eject.menu’ as a handy way of ejecting an optical disc without having to use the Eject key on the keyboard or having to select the mounted optical disc in the Finder and choosing to Eject it.
To remove any menu bar item, hold down the Command (cmd) key and then drag the menu bar icon off the menu bar into a puff of smoke, similar to removing a Dock item.
Disclaimer:
While the author has taken care to provide our readers with accurate information, please use your discretion before acting upon information based on the blog post. Amsys will not compensate you in any way whatsoever if you ever happen to suffer a loss/inconvenience/damage because of/while making use of information in this blog.
This feature has been tested using OS X v10.8.2 which was the latest Mac OS release at the time of writing and also using the latest Internal and external Apple keyboards.
